Blok and Jung: the Inflation of the Ego (“Verses about the Beautiful Lady”)

Abstract

According to depth psychology, whose pioneer is C.G. Jung, inflation is an emotional state, most often triggered by a dream, manifested by an increase in sexual urge, a feeling of higher energy, power and fascination. Ego inflation can have a dual effect on the individual who experiences it: positive, which is associated with the possibility of establishing contact with archetypes as elements of the collective unconscious, and negative, leading to a sense of possession. In both cases, which often occur together, the key to understanding this unique state of psychic energy is contact with symbols, previously latent in the psychic genotype. In the creative process, as well as in crucial moments of life, the ego acquires the special privilege of insight into the unrecognised realms of the unconscious, which leads to a kind of emotional explosion, a feeling of ecstasy. The ego of the creator, stunned by new possibilities and filled with psychic energy, undergoes excessive growth, “swelling”. Carl Jung calls this state being possessed by the unconscious complex. In the case of Alexander Blok, one can speak of being possessed by the archetype of the Eternal Feminine – Anima, which is proven in the cycle Verses About the Beautiful Lady (1901–1902). The symbol of the Beautiful Lady unites within its archetypal structure various kinds of psychological oppositions (consciousness and unconsciousness, inner woman and inner man, ecstasy and fear). The Beautiful Lady as the numinous element of the poet’s psychic structure acquires the status of an energetic dominant or the centre of the unconscious.